All of these questions ask about a person’s habits or routines. However, the most common “what do you do” question is:

What do you do?

This question has a special meaning: what is your job? In my last post, I called phrases like this hidden idioms – common phrases that have been shortened and have a different meaning than expected. (The full phrase is “What do you do for a living?”)

How should you answer this question? The most common answer is to reply with your job title:

I am a professor.

I am a businessman.

I am a hairdresser.

We do NOT say “My job is a professor.” Another way to answer the question is to describe your job duties:

I teach English at Korea Nazarene University.

I sell accounting software to local businesses.

I cut hair at a salon.

Finally, if you are unemployed, a common euphemism is: “I’m between jobs.”